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Street Fighter, Tekken Producers to Face Off at GamesCom

Katsuhiro Harada and Yoshinoro Ono are having fun with this. The Tekken series director and Street Fighter series producer surprised fighting fans at ComicCon when they announced a collaboration between Namco Bandai and Capcom to create two Tekken vs. Street Fighter games. Now the two men say they're going to have a franchise showdown at this month's GamesCom, and they're talking more scripted smack about their upcoming digital duel than a couple of professional wrestlers.

Open to everyone, the Tekken X Street Fighter duel will take place at 2 p.m. on August 19 in the Konrad-Adenauer-Saal in Cologne, Germany. Fans will not only get to witness the battle of videogame fighting's greatest luminaries, they'll have the chance to try Tekken X Street Fighter for themselves in an on-stage tournament.

"Our gathering of Street Fighter fans at the special occasion of ComiCon in San Diego was marred when Harada pathetically attempted to bribe everyone present with free copies of his games," Ono said in a press release with its tongue planted firmly in cheek. "Capcom, however, is an honorable company. We don't just crash other companies' events. So I've properly notified in advance that I will participate in the Tekken fan event planned for GamesCom. Since it is by invitation of the TEKKEN team, I expect Harada to have various underhanded surprises planned."

"Knowing this," Ono continued. "I still plan to participate in the event while overcoming any obstacles he may have planned so that I can show them what a real fighting game is all about. I'll also take with me the shaving oil I received from Hakan and the shaving razor from Vega so that I can erase that overgrown beard of Harada's, exposing that baby face to go with his childish actions. It should turn out to be a great party!"

But wait, there's more:

"After releasing Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 1999, Ono disappeared from the fighting game scene," Harada replied. "Even though there were many requests for a sequel from fighting game fans, and even veteran fighting game developers like myself, Ono, Ryu, Chun Li, and crew failed to show their faces for 10 years."

"When they do finally show after a blank of 10 years, they don't even bother to say a few words to the Mishima Zaibatsu, who helped maintain the fighting game scene for the 10 years they were gone," Harada continued. "Not only that, they flee Japan to have their little gathering of fanboys at ComiCon in San Diego. So I made a sudden appearance at their little event, handed out a few free games to gain favor, and delivered a challenge to Ono. Unfortunately, we weren't able to settle things at ComiCon but I'll face him again this time in Europe -- at Cologne! Blows are exchanged in place of civilities -- that's how it's done at the Mishima Zaibatsu."

The Tekken X Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken games are currently in development and expected for release sometime in 2012.

Sharkey says: The collaboration between franchises is a great idea, and I'm glad Ono and Harada are hamming it up so much. Looking forward to seeing who is officially crowned the king of fighters.